


AaCW: Dead People Don't Sneeze

by loosenyourcorset



Series: Adventures at Camp Wildflower [2]
Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Gen, I know the title is ~menacing~ but it isn't scary I promise!, M/M, Summer, Summer Camp, Warning: Death Mention, it isn't graphic or violent or gory though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 18:13:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19817794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenyourcorset/pseuds/loosenyourcorset
Summary: Cody and Noel meet up with Spock in the forest. Ridiculousness ensues & Cody sprains his ankle.





	AaCW: Dead People Don't Sneeze

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't mention this in the last chapter but this is just the obligatory 'don't show Cody or Noel' or any of the other people mentioned in these stories. Or Kelsey or Aleena. You get the point. Thank you!

"It's a cold sore."

The boys of the Dandelion Cabin were huddled around the youngest of them, twelve year old Damian, in an attempt to identify the bump beneath the kid's lower lip.

"It's not a cold sore. I've seen a cold sore. My older sister gets cold sores all the time because she's always kissing the guys at her high school without mouth protection," came one of the responses.

"What the hell is mouth protection?" Noel piped up, one eyebrow arched up to show the incredulity he felt towards the idea that there could be such thing as protection for the mouth. The kid who'd mentioned it failed to respond before Damian could nod in agreement.

"It's not a cold sore," Damian echoed. "But then again I don't know what a cold sore is..."

"It's something that's not to be talked about in this cabin," came the response of Counselor Ferdinand, who's face was all scrunched up in annoyance that the older boys were speaking about this in front of someone who wasn't even supposed to be in their group.

Camp Wildflower had three age groups that split up how you were placed in a cabin. 3-7, 8-12, and 13-17. It had been that way ever since the second year. The first year had been a mashup - all of the ages had gotten mixed together before the counselors realized just how bad of an idea that really was, as older teenagers hardly seemed to mix very will with kids just leaving the last stages of toddlerville. The only reason Damian was even in the Dandelion Cabin was because the last of the 8-12 year old groups were filled, and there were no beds left in any of their cabins. When that happened, they were bumped up to the next available bed in the next available age group. Sometimes it got a little weird, but it always seemed to work out okay. Until kids started talking about cold sores, apparently.

"Sorry," the boys replied in a collective mumble, disbanding as Ferdinand took over and lead Damian into the bathroom to put some ointment on...whatever it was that had popped up below his lip.

It was now week two of camp, and the campers were all pretty happy that the introductory games were over. Everyone was getting along with everyone, for the most part, and that recent point of near contention between Noel and Cody had gone away, not to be brought up again. In fact, they were getting kind of chummy. At least as chummy as you can get over a seven-day period.

Cody walked up to the only slightly older boy, tapping his arm and jerking his head toward the doorway. It was a Saturday, and Saturdays and Sundays were considered free days for the campers. They had a choice of some counselor-suggested activities, of course, such as movie night by the lake (which consisted of a giant white sheet held up by two trees and a projector that worked a good seventy-five percent of the time, given that it didn't rain and nobody had stolen the sheet throughout the week), or doing arts and crafts in the rec hall. It was fun every once in a while, but usually it was more fun to go off on your own or with a group of friends and explore the camp in all its glory.

The boys filed out of the cabin, heading off in different directions as Cody directed Noel's line of vision to a spot across the lake.

Noel shrugged as he looked at it, barely visible from where they were standing on the cabin's porch. "What about it?" he asked, and Cody looked like he was about to burst. Like he had the world's biggest secret brimming in his throat, and he might explode if he didn't get to tell it. So he lead Noel further from the cabin's door, making sure no one else was within earshot.

"Last night at dinner, Spock told me that right there where I pointed is a dead body. Or close to there, anyway."

Now, this was the third or fourth time Noel had heard about this Spock dude. He'd never actually _seen_ him, and he honestly had to wonder if Cody was a lunatic or had some kind of imaginary friend. Especially with a name like Spock. That couldn't be his real name, right? Besides, he had sat across from Cody at dinner every night for the past week, and he hadn't seen him talking to anyone by that name last night.

"Are you high?" he questioned back, not even trying to be sarcastic. "You talk about Spock a lot for me not to have ever seen him."

Cody's eyes rolled and he simply shook his head. "He was volunteering in the kitchen to earn WPs last night. You wouldn't have seen him. I talked to him on his break," he informed.

"WPs?" Noel asked. He might have been there a week already, but it would take way longer than that for anyone to figure out all of the little details about the camp.

"Wildflower Points," Cody answered, like that explained it perfectly. "I'll tell ya later."

Wildflower Points could be obtained by helping the counselors out around the camp. Helping cook one of the meals or cleaning up after everyone had eaten, picking up trash around the camp and recycling it accordingly, helping with a night's activity, etc. All of those could earn you some solid WPs, some more than others, and Cody had amassed a whopping lifetime value of 514 to date. He had once asked what they were collected for, and a counselor told him you could only spend them at the end of each year. They rolled into the next year, though, if you opted to to save them. You could cash them out for real prizes like a nice cell phone, a vacation trip, or a brand new car if you had somehow helped enough (and probably kissed enough ass) to gather that many points. He had met a couple of kids with point numbers in the thousands, and he had to wonder if they were even having any _fun_ at the camp.

"Spock said if we wanted to see it before sundown, we should meet him there by six o'clock tonight." Cody checked his watch and it was only three, but he decided that now would be as good a time as any to get a move on if they wanted to be there on time. Noel pointed out that it wouldn't take them _three hours_ to row halfway across the lake, and all Cody could do was remind Noel that he'd seen his rowing skills during that canoe race a few days ago and that, yes, it might just take them three whole hours.

✰

By the time six p.m. rolled around, Cody and Noel were only just rowing up onto the sandy, muddy area near where Spock had told them to meet. They probably could have gone by themselves, and Cody had said as much last night, but Spock was kind of a strange little dude. He had wanted to see the body again, supposedly, plus he assured Cody that he would never find it based on directions alone. Because, really, what could he say? _Look for this rock, near this tree, by this bush..._ It was going to be easier to just go along and show them himself.

Spock helped get the boat halfway out of the water, anchoring it down by tying it with some rope to a tree. He hadn't come extra prepared - he was merely lucky, having found the rope somewhere on the beach while he'd been waiting for their arrival. "If this thing somehow gets loose, we're fucked." Spock, clearly, had something of a potty mouth. Cody was used to it, but it made Noel's eyebrows momentarily raise. He wanted to bring up the fact that Spock was there and didn't even have a boat of his own tied up anywhere, but he was afraid that pointing that out would have really turned Spock into the cryptid that Noel feared he was.

"So where's this dead body?" Cody inquired, stepping out of the boat and making sure not to hit the water because wet sneakers were almost as bad as wet jeans. But only almost. Spock adjusted the glasses perched on top of his nose, gesturing to a small, almost invisible trail leading away from the small beach and the lake.

This didn't sit well with Noel. He didn't want to get lost in the woods with some lanky guy he'd only just met, and a kid who he'd seen dip part of his peanut butter sandwich into a glass of lemonade. They didn't exactly present themselves as anything like real pioneers, but he followed the two of them past the trees and along this trail that seemed mostly forgotten and lost to time. _How_ Spock had ever found it, he didn't want to know.

The greenery surrounding the path seemed to raise up on both sides, towering over the boys. The trees were too tall. They were also too dense and you couldn't see through them without really straining your eyes. The sun appeared to be blocked out by the leaves, and they took in the fact that nature had taken to ruling this part of the camp entirely. Little anthills dotted the sides of the walkway. You could hear squirrels scurrying up the trees and birds chirping that sounded both up close and distant at the same time. If you looked closely enough, you could spot all sorts of insects crawling along something or another. It was no surprise someone had died out here and nobody had found them yet. Again, Noel was afraid to ask Spock just how the hell he'd come upon an area like this.

Eventually, after several minutes of quiet walking with only woodland creatures and their thoughts to listen to, the three of them came through to a clearing. It wasn't a big clearing, about the size of a large living room in someone's house. There was a pile of leaves and you could see what appeared to be one hand sticking out on one side underneath them. A little further down, two legs from the calves onward were poking into view. This made Cody's stomach do a backflip, despite the fact that the entire point of being there was to see exactly what they were all now staring at. Presuming it was, of course, a real dead body. It didn't seem to smell like a rotting corpse...but he didn't have any experience to draw off of in terms of what a corpse might smell like, rotting or otherwise. He _had_ come across some roadkill of course, living in Arkansas and everything, but he'd never dared to get close enough to catch a whiff.

"We should poke it."

Spock's voice nearly caused Noel and Cody to turn and run. The silence of the woods had lulled them into a false sense of security despite being all alone, and the sudden noise of his voice immediately took that away from them.

" _No_!" Cody exclaimed, looking bewildered - first at Spock, then at Noel, then back to Spock again. "No way! That would make us look guilty or something, when we tell the counselors."

"What?! We're not gonna be _telling the goddamn counselors_!" Spock shook his head. "What if one of the counselors is the culprit? And what if we accidentally told that counselor? We'd be next!"

The whole idea that one of the counselors could very well be a murderer had been a foreign idea to Cody prior to Spock's little outburst. "I bet it was Andy. That guy is super suspicious!"

"I seriously doubt that if a counselor killed anybody, they would leave it this close to the camp. I mean, that's like murder 101, right? You take the victim as far away from the scene of the crime as possible to dispose of the body or something, I'm pretty sure," Noel figured aloud. 

It was at this point that Cody noticed the leaves rustle. Not like a lizard had scampered into the pile despite the dead body resting underneath, but more like a deliberate albeit miniscule movement. When nobody responded to his insightful view of things, Noel had to drag his gaze up to their faces. Spock was smirking, Cody was laser-focused on the leaves.

"What am I missing?" he asked. No answer came back, but he didn't need one. He too watched as the leaf pile twitched, and he tried his absolute best to remember how much he loved horror films and how few times those films had actually succeeded in scaring him. Cody's eyes had gotten wide, and Spock's dumb smirk had gotten bigger. To his knowledge, this meant one of two things:

1\. This was some colossal joke between Cody and Spock, elaborately planned to haze the new guy by luring him to some secluded area of the forest in order to righteously freak him the hell out. Which, he'd be embarrassed to admit, was kind of working.  
2\. They had happened upon a zombie, and Spock just had a weird reaction to fear.

✰

Cody was sitting in the rec hall's equivalent to an emergency room. There was a door off to the side that lead into the nurse's office, where he was at present getting his sprained ankle all bandaged up. He was worried that it was broken when he went in, but she assured him that it was completely fine and would be healed up in the next week or so. Possibly even only a couple of days. This information really ticked off his mother when he was given permission to use the office's phone to call home; not because the camp had let her son get hurt, but rather because her son was acting like an idiot out in the woods. He hadn't wanted to call her but it was camp policy to call the parents or a legal guardian whenever someone got hurt, no matter how minor. He promised that he was okay and that he definitely _didn't_ need to be picked up, and after a bit of scolding they said their goodbyes and he hung up. He couldn't walk on his foot and ended up having to use crutches to get back to his cabin after dinner.

"Did they yell at you?" he asked Noel when they finally had some time to talk before lights out. The older boy was sitting rather uncomfortably on the edge of Cody's bed. He, Spock, and Spock's friend had been pulled into the camp director's office for a good, lengthy talking to. Cody had been spared the lecture due to his injury.

"No. They just said that we are never, ever, ever allowed to go back into the forest unaccompanied again. Ever."

As it turned out, there wasn't really any dead body out in that godforsaken clearing. Spock, in all of his wisdom, had set it up with some little friend of his from the Hyacinth Cabin (13-17, of course). The plan was for the friend, whose name Cody and Noel never even learned, was supposed to lay under those leaves and wait until they all showed up. Then, once Spock had convinced them that poking a "dead body" with a stick was a fun idea, he was supposed to jump up and scare them.

Well, he scared them alright.

Instead of following the plan like he was meant to, he ended up sneezing halfway through the meeting. Hence the movements, as he was trying to get his unseen hand up to his nose to stop the oncoming accident. It didn't work. He sneezed, the leaves flew over the place, and Cody shouted in surprise, having only enough brainpower left to enable his fight or flight reflex. Naturally it went with flight, because Cody is not a particularly confrontational person, and he took off back down the path with Noel following not far behind. They could hear Spock and the other one laughing in the background as they both attempted to catch up with the first two. This all might have been funny to Cody and Noel in the long run, except Cody ended up tripping on a rock that was hidden beneath some sand. He practically heard his ankle say, _"fuck, dude, come on!"_

It also turned out that Spock wasn't _that_ big of a freak. He hadn't magically appeared on the beach without a boat. He and his pal had come in on the opposite side, and once they realized the seriousness of the situation they dropped the act and quickly went to grab their boat in order to help get Cody back to the main part of camp without too much trouble. It took a while and they all nearly missed dinner because of it. The sun was beginning to set by the time they got back, and Spock had admitted along the way that he only knew of that clearing from a year or two ago when the cabin counselor he had then had lead them there for a 'spooky stories around the campfire' night.

"I wouldn't even want to," Cody responded a moment later, a little laugh escaping. The adrenaline was finally starting to wear off, and he was sure he'd be asleep before lights out was ever called.

Noel agreed, letting out a sigh as he thought about the day's events in his mind. Cody, his closest camp friend so far, was about to be stuck in bed for a week. "Do you think you'll get any WPs out of sympathy?" he asked, grinning and trying to take his friend's mind off of the pain. It was obvious that his ankle hurt despite the ice he had resting against it, and he didn't want him being all depressed because of that.

Cody let out another laugh and shook his head no. He unwrapped the extra dessert that Spock had given him after dinner - Spock's own brownie as an added apology - and split it in half, giving the side he didn't keep to Noel. "I don't think that's how those work."

"How am I supposed to know? Ya didn't ever get around to explaining them to me." Noel was really just talking. He didn't care about the points in the slightest, but hey, if it helped Cody focus on something else then he didn't mind.

They spent the rest of the time they had that evening making small talk. Cody attempted to explain the ins and outs of Wildflower Points, laughing as Noel asked all kinds of stupid questions about how you could receive them or get them taken away. It wasn't such a horrible end to the day, after all. When ten minutes to lights out rolled around, he had already dozed off. Noel stuck around long enough to make sure he was really asleep, then went and got changed so that he could climb into bed. Before falling asleep he tried to think of various ways that he could keep Cody's spirits up for the next seven days, but he was out cold almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.


End file.
